


Begin Again

by starsaligns



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, First Dates, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-20
Updated: 2015-04-20
Packaged: 2018-03-25 01:10:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3791029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsaligns/pseuds/starsaligns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the aftermath of everything happening, Cisco and Laurel meet up for a casual lunch that has Laurel wanting more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Begin Again

**Author's Note:**

> A little present to everyone for Tomorrow/Tonight’s Flash, depending on when I posted this. This hasn't been beta'd.

She takes one deep breath while looking in the mirror and shifts on her feet. It’s different, the look she’s sporting. It’s softer, sure, because of the place where she’s going. The dark lipstick she’s used to wearing now is far too inappropriate for a meeting at the local cafe, so she opts for a soft pink feel and a daylight smoke. It’s a cafe, it’s the middle of the afternoon, and it’s not like she hasn’t met anyone at this place before–because she so has–but it’s different.

She doesn’t question why it’s different. It just is.

“Perfect”, she speaks to her reflection in the mirror after giving herself one last pep talk. She doesn’t know why she needs one per se, but she nearly grabbed her phone earlier this morning to cancel the meeting when she tells herself no. She needs this, they need this. It’s for the greater good of the city. “Damn it, Laurel”, she mumbles out and grabs her tan leather jacket to throw over her bare shoulders (it’s almost spring in Starling City and a tank would barely register in keeping herself warm). Soon, she was ready and out the door to walk towards the local cafe.

It’s a short walk, her heels clack against the pavement while she strides towards the cafe, and her thoughts wander to the last time she was here. Ted was her latest and though there were nothing but flirting and gym training. When Wildcat promptly moved away to Keystone City for rehab after a particular fight in protecting the Glades, that ended that. However, before he moved they managed to share a few cups of coffee and a couple of pastries before they said their goodbyes. He made a comment that the little cafe that she absolutely adores is subpar at best.

She still hasn’t given him a text back since he moved away.

But she’s walking towards the little restaurant and she can see him through the window. Cisco is a little light of sunshine that she never thought she’d be able to become friends with, but she has. Ever since he made the necklace for her, Sara’s Canary Cry made into a choker that’s fashionable and easily hidden so she’d have the full use of her hands, they start to casually write back and forth through texts and emails. What she didn’t expect is for him to be early to their meeting. 

Cisco’s eyes meet hers through the window, his wide smile causes her to give him one in return. He waves and she waves back. That’s when she makes the final stride to the doors and open it, walking straight towards the taller male and placing a hand on his arm. “You’re early”, Laurel muses out. “Or am I late?”

“You’re on time, Laurel”, he replies to her and laughs gently, giving her a friendly poke to her side before reaching for her chair. “I’m the one that’s early because when is the”, he starts out and his voice lowers, but his tone of voice is so giddy that she shakes her head in slight amusement while he pulls out a chair for her. “When the Black Canary cries for you, you run towards her, am I right?”

Laurel thinks back to the last moment this happens and it’s one of the last few dates she ever had with Tommy before their break up and his death. He used to always pull out his chair for her while they were together, open doors for her, and she think that chivalry had been dead when Sebastian Blood takes her out to dinner and promptly sits down without helping her or when Ted just opens a door and leaves her to walk in after him.

She can help but think how wonderful it is to be able to feel like this again and she has to stop herself. The brunette had told herself that this was just two friends having lunch, after a slight aftermath of everything that’s happened, and she allows herself to relax slightly because that’s it. It’s just two friends having lunch and catching up; but she can’t help but wonder and place herself in a scenario where this becomes their weekly thing. Central City isn’t that far away, just a two hour train ride.

But she sits down and crosses her legs and Cisco lets out a low whistle. “Damn girl, look at them shoes”, he says, teasing tone to her voice and she can’t help but laugh. That’s when she thinks back to when she bought the pair. Tommy had the audacity to call them ugly, but the spikes on the heels made them seem a little bit edgy and made her feel a little badass. “Just don’t kick me. I don’t heal as fast as Barry does.”

But she mewls out a small bit of laughter, a blush creeping to her cheeks before she picks up the menu; it’s like she’s back in high school, going out on her first date with Billy Sumter and everything about that date was awkward as hell because Oliver and Tommy ended up crashing it and running the boy out–which she had been thankful for because the kid was eating in silence while she was talking her ass off.

This time, she’s the one that’s super quiet and just thinking back to everything and usually she’s more straightforward than this, and she can’t help but wonder what in the world is wrong with her. It’s just lunch. With Francisco Ramon (yeah, she got a kick out of that one one night during a Skype session when she let out her name was actually Dinah and he confessed to Francisco), but Cisco’s already picking up on her slight change of demeanor and is already pulling down her menu to be able to see her face fully.

“You know I like this place”, he tells her. “You don’t have many street cafes playing James Taylor anymore. I swear, if I have to hear Nora Jones or James Blunt at CC Jitters one more time”, Cisco says as he shakes his head, makes a little crazy sign near his head and she laughs gently, leaning back against her seat.

Laurel breaks the soft silence with a question, wondering if he was a fan of James Taylor and he nods enthusiastically. “Well, don’t tell anyone. I’ll deny it. This face only listens to Escape The Fate and Black Veil Brides.”

“Oh god, no wonder you get along with Felicity.”

And he laughs, genuinely this time and tilts his head back to resound it and she drops her jaw slightly. She can’t even remember a time where someone has genuinely laughed at something she said and really that’s more than enough for her to press her lips together in a thin smile and look down at her menu.

She doesn’t make a comment how amazingly accomplished she feels right now and how she wishes she’d hear his laugh again.

\--------

Lunch becomes an easy thing and she lets out a gasp when she finds out his real age–about the same as Felicity–and she muses to herself at how she wants to kidnap this little cub and make him hers, but she shakes her head at the fact because that seems ludicrous enough to do so. Cisco is her friend, and though they had this little casual flirting thing starting from when he first visited Starling City with Joe and gave her the Canary Cry choker, she can’t risk it and end up forgotten again.

Not when she’s realized that she’s completely okay; but there’s a part of her that misses this and if she dares to say it, she looks into Cisco’s brown eyes and sees the same look of adoration that she clearly gives to him (yeah, she’s given up hiding it halfway through her panini) in return. Maybe it’s the hopefulness within her that thinks that she could be happy–because hell, all of them deserve a little happiness and easiness that they’ve been lacking for so long–and it’s just easy to finally be herself again with Cisco.

He makes a comment about green her eyes are and she retorts with Cisco not needing a line because lines are for losers and that he’s certainly not a loser and he laughs again. She gets a triumphant feeling at the notion and they get lost in another one of his tangents about mechanics and engineering–and he gets totally absorbed in her legal jargon about politics and case documents.

In fact, it isn’t until he’s looking at her completely in aw that she trails off in her words and their waiter brings the check. Laurel only notices one and speaks to rectify the situation because, again, they’re just two friends who are sharing a meal; but Cisco waves her hand away and says he’s “got it girl, put your card away before I smack the plastic all the way to Hogwarts.”

“Not like no one’s going to know how to use it but the Muggleborns. And what would they do with it? I doubt they can order anything off the internet and have it shipped to their dorms. Technology and magic don’t mix.”

And that’s when he drops the card into the receipt wallet and stares at her, open jaw and wide eyes. “I love you”, he whispers out and she blushes. “Dinah Laurel Lance, bonafide Gryffindor. I even have a scarf that I ordered that hangs in my bedroom.”

“Dude”, Cisco gasps out. “You’re my hero. I have the whole wand set on display in my living room.” Laurel’s eyes widen and she bites down on her bottom lip. “Oh it’s on, Ramon. I am the biggest closeted Potterhead there is. I once challenged Oliver Queen and Tommy Merlyn to a Quidditch match. I fucking owned their asses like nobody’s business.”

“I believe you”, he laughs out again and grabs his cup of coffee to go. “But this Hufflepuff will end up beating you, watch. Maybe you should come to Central City and play for our league one day.”

And she pauses for a moment, thinking out easy that could be and she nods in agreement. “Yeah”, she says as she grabs her coffee cup as well. “I’d like that.”

She leaves with him, of course, considering they have time for a little walk before he has to leave back for the train station; but she can’t help but get in one good look at back at the cafe.

The cafe where she sees her life begin again.


End file.
